The Book Conservation Lab: A Brief Tour

General Collections items waiting for treatment

General Collections items waiting for treatment

April 21-27 is Preservation Week!  In honor of this event, we will be featuring preservation-related content on the Smithsonian Libraries’ blog as well as our other social media outlets, like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr. Today, we offer you a peek inside our own Book Conservation Lab!

The Preservation Services Division of the Smithsonian Libraries is committed to the preservation, safe exhibition, and long-term access to collections objects, many of which are irreplaceable. The primary mission of the Book Conservation Lab (BCL) is to treat special and general collections items needed for research, exhibition or digitization. Continue reading

African American art and the Harmon Foundation

 

1928 Harmon Exhibition Brouchure featuring Sargent Johnson

1928 Harmon Exhibition Brouchure featuring Sargent Johnson

When wealthy real estate developer William Elmer Harmon founded the Harmon Foundation in 1922, it originally supported causes as varied as playgrounds, biblical films and nursing programs. But it is better known today as one of the first major supporters of African American creativity and ingenuity.

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Lines and Lines and Points: Artists’ Books by Sol LeWitt

SAAM 1990.60.2

Lines from Points to Points, Sol LeWitt (SAAM 1990.60.2)

Though American conceptual artist Sol LeWitt (1928-2007) worked in every media, he is known best for his wall drawings and series of investigations of lines, colors and shapes. If you have ever been to an exhibition of LeWitt’s wall drawings, you’ll agree there is a sense of awe (“How could someone draw so many tiny straight lines across that entire gallery?”) mixed with a sense of vertigo (“How could someone draw so many tiny straight lines across that entire gallery?”). Continue reading

What is an artist’s book?

“Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some are to be
chewed and digested.”

 ~Francis Bacon, Essays (1625) Bacon’s Essays By Francis Bacon, Richard Whately.

 

 

We have talked about artists’ books on the Smithsonian Libraries blog before. And we’ll talk about them more, as a part of a short series to highlight interesting works of book art owned by the Smithsonian’s American Art & Portrait Gallery Library.

But what, exactly, is an artist’s book? You may not be able to tell just from looking at the object itself!

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New & Notable Additions to the AA/PG Library

The Smithsonian American Art/National Portrait Gallery Library (AAPG) would like to share some of its recent additions to its collections:

Mercurio

Roy Lichtenstein : Meditations on Art. Gianni Mercurio. Milano : Skira ; New York : Distributed in North America by Rizzoli International Publications, c2010.

Contents: Modern postmodern: Roy Lichtenstein / Gianni Mercurio — Lichtenstein: grids silence and art after Manet / Demetrio Paparoni — Connecting the dots / Robert Pincus-Witten — Making an original from a copy / Annabelle Ténèze — Five studios and some musical notes / Frederic Tuten — Meditations on art / interviews selected by Ida Parlavecchio. Modernism and the vernacular ; Beyond the modern ; Beyond Picasso ; Movement and time ; Going abstract ; Mechanization takes command ; Still life ; Frozen brushstroke ; After brushstrokes ; The rational subconscious ; Expressionist codes ; Native pop ; Landscape as iconography — Sources and art references / iconographic research by Elena Paloscia and Evan Reehl Ryer — Roy Lichtenstein: a chronology in brief / Clare Bell.

Subject: Lichtenstein, Roy, 1923-1997 — Exhibitions. N40.1.L69 T7 2010.

Kindersley

The Civil War : A Visual History. Produced in association with the Smithsonian Institution. New York : DK Publishing, c2011.

Contents: An Imperfect Union 1815-1860 – Secession Triggers War 1861 – Clash of Armies 1862 – The Union Tightens Its Grip 1863 – Grant, Sherman, and Total War 1864 – Collapse of the Confederacy 1865 – Legacies of the War 1865-1877.

Subject: United States — History — Civil War, 1861-1865 — Pictorial works; United States — History — 1815-1861 — Pictorial works; Confederate States of America — History — Pictorial works; Confederate States of America — History, Military — Pictorial works. E468.7 .C585 2011.

Steichen

Steichen in Color : Portraits, Fashion & Experiments. Edward Steichen. New York : Sterling Innovation, c2010.

Contents: Photography

Subject: Steichen, Edward, 1879-1973; International Museum of Photography and Film – Collections; Photography, Artistic; Portrait photography; Fashion photography; Color photography; Photographers — United States — Biography. TR647.S812 S7 2010.

Nollen

Paul Robeson : Film Pioneer. Scott Allen Nollen. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, c2010.

Contents: Great things to come — Black preacher's ambition : Body and soul (1925) — The growth of an idea : Borderline (1930) — Bloomin' majesty : The emperor Jones (1933) — Imperial palaver : Sanders of the river (1935) — Whale on the Mississippi : Show boat (1936) — Singing king of Casanga : The song of freedom (1936) — Down in the ditch : Big fella (1937) — Enough here for all : King Solomon's mines (1937) — Greener pastures : Jericho (1937) — A people's film : The proud valley (1940) — We were brothers : Native land (1942) — Shantytown shake-up : Tales of Manhattan (1942) — Deep river.

Subject: Robeson, Paul, 1898-1976; African Americans – Biography; African American actors – Biography; African American singers – Biography; Political activists — United States — Biography. CT275.R645 N6 2010.

Rauschenberg

Robert Rauschenberg. Edited by Ealan Wingate and Emily Florido. New York, NY : Gagosian Gallery ; Munich, Germany : Prestel, c2010.

Contents: Full circle / James Lawrence — Plates. — Rauschenberg's epic vision / John Richardson — Chronology 1925-2008 / Susan Davidson and Joan Young — List of works.

Subject: Rauschenberg, Robert, 1925-2008 – Exhibitions; Art, American — 20th century — Exhibitions. N40.1.R24 G34 2010

Barker

Abigail and John Adams : The Americanization of Sensibility. G. J. Barker-Benfield. Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2010.

Contents: Origins, definitions, and social circumstances — The metropolitan sources of the Adamses' views of sensibility — The meanings of sensibility — The theory of gendered sensibility — Social circles and the reformation of female manners — Young American women enter the world — Particular applications — A woman's struggle over sensibility — Sensibility and reform — Abigail's perspective, public versus private — John Adams and the reformation of male manners — The pleasures and pains of public life — Private perpetuation — Raising children with sensibility — A reformed rake? — The question answered — Conclusion — The Americanization of sensibility.

Subject: Adams, Abigail, 1744-1818; Adams, John, 1735-1826; Sentimentalism; United States — Social life and customs — To 1775; United States — Social life and customs — 1775-1783;

United States — Social life and customs — 1783-1865. CT275.A21 B3 2010.

Doug Litts